In ContextÂ
- The solar conjunction will halt communication with Mars missions for 2 weeks.
- It is between October 2 and October. 14, 2021, when Mars is within 2 degrees of the Sun.
What is Solar Conjunction?Â
- It is the period when Earth and Mars, in their eternal march around the Sun, are obscured from each other by the fiery orb of the Sun itself.Â
- The two planets are temporarily invisible to each other like dancers on either side of a huge bonfire.
- Solar conjunction occurs every two years.
- Before solar conjunction, the mission team sends up any necessary commands.
ImpactsÂ
- Mission controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory respond in a variety of ways.
- They turn off some instruments. They collect data from others and store it.
- In some cases, they continue sending data to Earth, knowing that some data will be lost.Â
- No one attempts to send new instructions to Mars during solar conjunction.Â
- It’s impossible to predict what information might be lost due to interference from charged particles from the Sun, and that lost information could potentially endanger the spacecraft.Â
Source: CNN
